Category: black economic empowerment

Black Middle Class:The Problem with Black Business Movements

The Black Empowerment Project raised a very valid question, one that has yet to be responded to, nor answered by any of the Black economic movements. That question is how do we achieve Black economic independence? Now, the question suggests the answer. The answer is, by build Black economic intradependence and independence. But, all the Black economic movements completely fail to even formulate a plan to encourage Black economic independence.

Now, Dr. Claud Anderson, in his powernomics movement, had a very sensible idea, but it shared the same limitation as the Marcus Garvey movement, it had a singular focus in one product, albeit a very good one. Dr. Anderson wanted a vertical monopoly: fisheries, transportation, restaurants. Garvey wanted ships for transport and cargo.

African American Manifesto: My Black Agenda for Millennium 2000

[I am touched that you wrote me. I have been planning to start a Black business bureau for some time now. I have not written out the plan, but this seems as good a time as any. This letter will not only go to you, but I am now, because you inspired me, will be sending this out to every Black church, Black politician, Black organization in the entire country. I can dedicate a few thousand to this letter and campaign. I am also an online marketing genius and will be doing a major press release of this letter as well. Thank you for inspiring me. Here’s my response to you.]

When African slaves were sold or stolen from Africa, they were first sent to an island just off the coast of west Africa. On this island, they were mind-wiped and the men were brainwashed against the women. For, 95% of Africans were sent to central and south America. In central and south America Africans could hope to live the ripe old age of 23. However, they actually were treated quite a bit better, since they learned skills. However, because their death rate was so high, they never grew in population.

Well, what about that 5% that was sent to America? Because the US had a constitution that said “all men are created equal”, Americans went overboard to make sure Africans were never seen as humans. They went through TWO different mind-wiping sessions. One off the coast of Louisiana, and a 3rd at the auction blocks. However,they were treated with kid gloves, compared to south America. However, they were kept as dumb as rocks. They learned absolutely nothing and it was forbidden to teach them anything, by law. Americans were deathly afraid they would revolt, which actually happened several time, but was kept to just that city. One town was completely slaughtered by Africans. There is even a famous painting about it, however this is not taught in public education.

When slavery was abolished in the US, Africans had been able to live to a much higher age than in south America and grew to be 30% of the population. However, these Africans had been mind-wiped 3 separate times, stripped of religion, origin, family, and culture. Upon their release they knew nothing, literally nothing.

Africans had to teach themselves how to read and write, make a family, farm for themselves, etc. Two things they could not teach themselves: their religion; their cultural origins. Even with these horrible odds, Africans became 80% literate in 50 years, something unheard of in human history.

While there were Africans that flourished in the new free era, most barely got by. A lot were slaughtered by racist white people who saw African freedmen as an economic threat to their livelihood. Many new laws were passed to keep tools out of the Africans hands; minimum wage laws were passed to keep people from hiring Africans; and anything produced by Africans was not allowed to come to market. Many African farmers went under from not being able to sell their produce.

The answer is not a question of just pouring money into the modern African American community. It requires a COMPLETE overhaul.

– branding: African Americans need to be branded as a viable and independentpoliticalgroup with our own identity, culture, religion and origin from Africa

– BRANDING: we need to produce new art, media, entertainment that if Pan-African, African centered and African inspired, with Africans as the only people in such media [THIS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ALL OTHER POINTS]

– we need to denounce any and all other groups that try to co-op our history, culture and art, who systematically claim it as their own and as their origination [like the Egyptian story; jewish story; our music; our culture]

– as a political group we need to acquire and send lobbyist to every state legislature and the federal congress, to lobby for African political and economic gains [NOT CIVIL RIGHTS]; we need things like the war on drugs stopped, which was intended and used as a racial profiling thing to send Africans into the prison system, to the tune of 75% of all Africans in prison today are there based on drug charges, to the tune of a $75 BILLION a year price tag; we need to remove all racist legislation; we need to understand, read and hold politicians responsible to the constitution, which is our best and only way to eradicate racist legislation; we need to remove Africans off of all social welfare legislation, this has destroyed the African family

– as an independent political group we need to divorce ourselves from the Democrat party; if we are serious about our independence we need to have the capability to vote as a group; voting for the Democrat party has made the Democrats take our votes and voice for granted

– we need to control African finance and African money; we need to open and gather in every city African run, operated and owned credit unions; we need to aggressively educate and finance African business; we need to arrest and stop any 3rd parties that are financing and control African business

– we need to control all African disposable income and spending; we need to arrest and stop any 3rd parties that are selling commodities in our communites and to Africans in America

– we need to control all African necessary expenditures, this includes food, energy and real property; we need to arrest and stop any 3rd party that controls necessities Africans have to pay for

– we need to go into our communities, move back in, fix them up, and open up all forms of business that Africans need and use on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis; we need to target and pick locations that have high concentrations of Africans already in them and do our best to move out 3rd parties; we need to open up convenience stores, credit unions, grocers, transportation and everything else needed, in each community so that Africans do not need to go outside of the community to spend money.

– we need to start regional stock markets that trade in African produce, commodities, and equities in African firms; this will get African farmers to produce and transport their produce to African stores as one big giant economic circle

– we need to connect these regional stock markets with stock markets in the motherland, which are now booming and coming online; 2 new major stock markets have come online recently in Africa and they need more business

– we need to understand that marriage is the most stabilizing social factor in our modern time, and we need to encourage our community to get married at every opportunity; marriage also is very strategic and economically good for both people; we need to launch a national campaign to encourage Africans to marry each other; we need to put African marriage in front of our people, through pictures, art, music, entertainment and as a sound business strategy [since it is more economic to be married]

– we need to purchase and take private, all historically Black Colleges; we need to control all African education; we need to arrest and stop 3rd parties from mis-educating our African youth, young adults and young professionals; this is exactly what all other groups do; we need to open and start vocational and skill based education for high school and young African adults; we need to access and encourage our youth to understand what they are good at, what they desire and to realize that college is not the answer for nearly 60% of the population; we need to educate our youth that colleges are a business and that they are putting out propaganda that you “should” go to college, in order to rake in money, at the young African’s expense, which they’ll be paying for, for decades; we need to encourage our young African to develop skills, such as automotive, electrical, plumbing etc, for blue collar paychecks, instead of minimum wage

If we are to survive this next century, we need to take some serious stock of what we are doing. We need to realize that, unless we get organized and think of ourselves as a group, we will be treated as chattel, misused, miseducated, and state dependent victims to a socialist state, with our wealth stolen year after year.

As it stands now, Africans in America cannot do anything to protect, save or help our countries in the motherland. Our people are being raped, murdered and wealth stolen by nearly every western power on the planet, and now Asia is getting in on the taking. We need to clean our house and get it in order.

BLACK EMPOWERMENT MOVEMENT

A movement started years ago for Black people to buy all of their items from Black owned and operated businesses; bank with Black owned and operated banks; use Black owned and operated services like Black owned and operated dry cleaners or Black owned and operated car shops; and move into Black controlled neighborhoods. Along with this is to buy homes in Black controlled neighborhoods. And, to open up businesses in Black controlled neighborhoods.

Black Economic Empowerment Movement

For those not able or not on their feet, the wealthier brothers and sisters must help them and teach them. We must not only take care of each other financially, but pull up those that have fallen through the cracks. Help them get off of welfare and food stamps and teach them how to open up their own business eventually.

The reality is, government is not going to save us, religion is not going to save us, helping our own brothers and sisters, living together and starting and supporting Black commerce will. Realize that government has failed us. Black leaders have failed us. Religion has failed us. Those are the facts. Pull your head out of the sand and recognize that we are now in last place, even behind white and indian mexicans that just swam across the river. We are last in every single economic list and have always been.

Empowerment comes from within not without. So many Blacks look to others for help when we could and can help ourselves. We need to own up to certain issues we dare not talk about: teen pregnancy; abortion; young marriage rate falling. Tackle these and most of the dangerous issues take care of themselves. If young couples were encouraged to get married, instead of staying apart, having babies out of wedlock or worse, going through with infanticide, our community would stabilize and the criminal element would drastically fall. If older couples would advise young couples and be there for support, those issues would dramatically decrease. If more affluent Black men would counsel and teach young Black men, Black empowerment would be a reality.

For those thinking that moving into a Black neighborhood is segregationist, understand that the Italians do it, Jews do it, Mormons do it, Asians do it, Hispanics do it. Everyone but Black people move to be with their people and financially support each other. Black people also fall prey to people calling them separatists, meanwhile the very person calling the Black people a separatist, lives in a community of their own.

It is time out to listen to the pie in the sky rhetoric preached by those would gladly see the Black community fail and continue to fail. We need to change our language and our dialogue. We’re not niggers. We’re brothers and sisters. We’re not punks, we’re businessmen. We’re not bourgeois, we’re entrepreneurs. We’re not hoes, we’re ladies. We’re not b****s, we’re African princesses. We’re not niggers, we’re African princes. We don’t live in a ghetto [ a word used to describe a jewish settlement ], we live in a Black controlled neighborhood.

We don’t need Black teens getting pregnant out of wedlock, being abandoned by their mates and then going on a system that will either enslave her with welfare, food stamps and medicaid, or worse encourage her to commit infanticide, we need to have people young couples can go to discuss the dangers and pitfalls of young love and having sex too early, when the consequences last a life-time.

We don’t need young Black men hanging out in the street with no hope of a future, being harassed by bully policemen, who’s only desire is to bolster the city and state’s money by throwing them in jail and into the private prison system. We need affluent Black men to be on call so that those Black men could be being mentored and taught about business and raising a family.

We don’t need Black families destroyed by an economic downturn with no savings and nothing to fall back on, and divorce or violence ensuing. We need affluent Black men to take the husband / fathers aside and coach them on starting a business and amassing Black wealth, so that no one else can control their economic destiny.